Upload
aamera-jiwaji
View
220
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/12/2019 He's seen the light
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/hes-seen-the-light 1/4
| Nairobi Business Monthly September
LIFE • TRAVEL • RESTAURANT REVIEWS • FILM& THEATRE • ART • MUSIC • BOOK REVIEW
Society & Culture
B O O K R E V I E W
BY AAMERA JIWAJI
Matteo Guzzini’s speech is punctu-
ated with pauses as he searches for
the right words to express himself,
whether it is in Italian, English or Swahili.
He begins many of his sentences with Allora,
a colloquial Italian word which means “well
....” And like many people new to the English
language, he prefers the present tense – I
arrive, I take, I go – which adds a sense of
immediacy to his speech.
But the challenges he experiences when
trying to say something melt away when he
communicates through his photographs.
All of a sudden it doesn’t matter that he is
an Italian native who moved to Watamu
three years ago, or that he doesn’t speak
fluent English or Swahili. With his camera,
he conveys the humility of the religion of
Islam, the gracefulness of waves as they carve
He’s seen the lightHeir to lighting empiresettles in coastal townof Watamu and makes
it big in photography
THROUGH THE VIEWFINDER
T he b o o k o ff e r s a g l i m p s e i nt o t he p s y c he o f t hi s E a s t e r n p o w e r , i t s c ul t ur e a nd t he s t o r y b e hi nd t he g r e a t C hi ne s e e c o no my .
CONTENTS►
The hidden story behind China’s success 63 ►
The lastword on Management 64
a pattern on a bed of sand, and the wisdom
etched into the face of a Maasai elder. Pauses,
tenses and slang disappear in this intensely
powerful moment of communication.
Matteo Guzzini is one of the heirs to the
iGuzzini family empire, a 50-year-old compa-
ny that produces Europe’s most exclusively
designed lights. He graduated from univer-
sity and first worked at a marketing agency
in Italy, but had a passion for photography. A
visit to Watamu in 2000 for a holiday with his
family changed his fortunes and his future.
“Twelve years ago, Watamu was empty,”
says Matteo. “There were only two lodges.
After two days in Watamu, my family decided
to buy a house here. For me, it was the reali-
sation of a dream.”
As a young boy, he says, he would look
lustily at pictures from National Geographic
of Maasai Mara and Amboseli. Kenya’s rich
diverse landscapes brought to life his dreams
8/12/2019 He's seen the light
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/hes-seen-the-light 2/4
September Nairobi Business Monthly |
Society & Culture
“This will be the first book to show all the di ff erentMaasais: the ones from Ngorongoro, Lake Natron,
Tanzania, Maasai Mara, Loitokitok and Samburu.”
in a way that Italy’s urban and rural settings
never could.
Matteo’s visions of Kenya stayed with
him as he returned to Italy to trade on
the European and North American stock
exchanges. Some months later, global stockmarkets crashed and he realised he needed
to distance himself from the emotions of
the market, and its allure of “haraka profit”
through hasty buy or sell decisions. “In that
moment I understood that to spend the time
in front of the laptop and to see the stock
market move was to lose time. Instead I
preferred to stay away and look at the stock
market kidogo,” he says.
Matteo “restarted” his life by moving to
Kenya. Initially, he apprenticed for Armando
Tanzini, an Italian artist based in Kenya for
over 30 years. A renowned architect and
sculptor, Tanzini had designed the Safari
Park Hotel in Nairobi and was known in
coastal circles as the man who designed
Malindi. Together, they published a book
called P O Box Kenya Africa, which featured
Matteo’s photographs of Tanzini’s work. “It
was a stimulating start for me,” says Matteo,
and it o ered direction to his passion for
photography.
The second book to carry Matteo’s work
is an Italian publication entitled The Last
Warrior in Africa. It will be published by Skira,
a leading Italian publisher of photography,
followed by an exhibition of Matteo’s photog-
raphy in Milan in January 2013 and in Nairobi
in April or May.
“My passion has always been travel. I have
visited the border of Ethiopia, Somalia, Tana
River, Taveta, Busia, Mumias, Kakamega,
Kisumu,” Matteo says. It was his one-month
long stay with the Maasai in Samburu andMaralal, and the photographs he took during
this time, which gave birth to this second
book.
“This will be the first book to show
all the di erent Maasais: the ones from
Ngorongoro, Lake Natron, Tanzania, Maasai
Mara, Loitokitok and Samburu.”
The national networks that Matteo has
built in Kenya over three years have made
him a port of call for Italian media. So earlier
this year, when journalists from Italy wanted
to do a documentary on the Al Shabaab and
their activities in Lamu, Matteo arranged
interviews with members of the Al Shabaab
group.
For the next phase of the documentary,
they will visit the drought-stricken areas of
Garissa, a conflict-ridden border post.
Parallel to his passion for photography,
Matteo continues to follow the stock
markets. “Everyday I wait for news on what
is happening in the market in Italy, or Spain
or Greece or Germany. In the last months, I
have spent a lot of time in front of the laptop
“My passionhas always been travel. I
have visited the borderof Ethiopia,Somalia,Tana River,Taveta, Busia,Mumias,Kakamega,Kisumu,”Matteo says.It was hisone-month
long stay with the Maasaiin Samburuand Maralal,and thephotographshe tookduring this time, which gave birth to this second book.
Matteo Guzzini’s
photographsdocument the
diff erent Maasaigroups in East
Africa.
Italian born photographer Matteo Guzzini
8/12/2019 He's seen the light
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/hes-seen-the-light 3/4
| Nairobi Business Monthly September
to make trade because the markets, theygo very fast up and down so if you take a
good moment and you buy when they break
some level you can find money. In the same
moment I don’t make speculation for only
one day or today. This is also the time to
invest money in the stocks market because
the prices are very down.”
Matteo says he invests in a basket of stocks
but sees a lot of potential in financials,
and is focusing on a Russian hedge fund,
which recently bought 70% of the stocks of
Unicredit, one of the largest Italian banks.
He sees clear parallels between his photog-
raphy and his passion for stock trading: both
demand patience, and quick action at the
perfect moment.
“To take a picture you have to be very
relaxed because sometimes you have only
five seconds,” he says. “You have to have a
nice light on the face, on the eyes; you have
to see the things that happen around you
and if you are stressed you don’t see nothing
around you. You become selfish, you don’t
see the soul of what is happening.”
He started taking photographs 15 years
ago when he was 25, and gradually honed
his skills. Today, he describes himself as a
portrait photographer: a genre where you
“take the perfect moment when people show
an emotion”. “In the photograph you describe
the moment,” he says. “I want to be like a
hunter. Someone who goes around with a
gun, you weigh the moment and you shoot.”
Matteo is well aware of the enormity of the
decision and the great sacrifice that it took
when he chose life as a photographer over the
Guzzini family empire. “When you have a big
business like my family which is worth Sh40
billion and you have 2,500 people work-
ing you have to be really professional and
serious. You can’t just go there to try and be a
good manager. If you are in such an industry
Society & Culture
Muslim
childre
peer
throug
doorw
Lamu
8/12/2019 He's seen the light
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/hes-seen-the-light 4/4
September Nairobi Business Monthly |
BOOK REVIEW
A train trip from Hong Kong
through Shenzhen, Dong-
guan to Qaungzhou doesn’t
reveal the factories adjacent to these cities and
the people inside. These are industrial cities, like
other coastal cities of China. Yet the people in the
factories are the most important resource of China’s
success. And 70% are women, while over 95% are
migrants from distant villages in interior China. And
hundreds of items like shoes, handbags, beauty
products, and materials which are today supplied
to developing and developed world are created by
these women.
Author Leslie T Chang, an American of Chinese
origin and a correspondent for the Wall Street
Journal, follows the lives of two ordinary girls in her
book Factory Girls. Lu Qingmin and Wu Chunming
grow up in the village; leave home in their mid teens
partly because the boys are respected more than
them and because there is “nothing to do at home”.Like 130 million others, they go to the cities to earn
a living. They are an explanation of what China is
today. Migrants create the economy of China, earn-
ing as little as 200 Yuan a month, (Sh2400). They
learn English, Mandarin and basic computer courses
which catapults them to success and save thou-
sands and even millions of shillings in a few years.
They send home over Sh80,000 a year and change
their lives and those of their families. They soon call
the shots back home. A few years later they begin
to date, start a business, get married and even buy
homes in the cities. The long-held dream of “going
back home and getting married to a local man”
fades.
Factory Girls is about the self-improvement,
ambition and resilience of the human spirit. Beyond
that, the book off ers a glimpse into the psyche of
this Eastern power, its culture, and through the
narratives of a group of women, the story behind the
great Chinese economy. It is about the triumph of a
disadvantaged people in a competitive world.
Mr. Kipchumba is a Consultant with Quest Works and
adjunct faculty at Strathmore’s Executive Education
Author: Leslie T Chang
Factory Girls
The hidden story
behind China’s
Success
About iGuzzini
The Guzzini family business has
worked with light for over 50
years. A company that makes indoor
lighting and outdoor lighting luminar-
ies, it was established in 1959 and is
now the leading Italian company in
the lighting design sector.
Since its inception, the company
has focused on the idea that the qual-
ity of a designed light is fundamental
to contributing to the quality of the
environment and so its applications
across the world are developed in
collaboration with leading architects
and designers, and known for their
subtlety and elegance. As a result,the company has received numer-
ous international design awards
including the coveted Guggenheim
Prize. iGuzzini’s designs illuminate
the most popular locations in the
world including Leicester Square in
London, Cathedral of Resurrection in
St Petersburg, Rolex tower in Dubai,
and the Shirvanshahs in Azerbaijan.
Their designs are also displayed at
international museums, which trace
the changing fortunes of the industry
and the transition from copper to
plastic casings.
iGuzzini is a family business owned
and managed by the Guzzini families
who took over the business after the
demise of its founder, Mariano Guzzi-
ni. It is the leading lighting companyin Europe, and recently established
subsidiary offi ces in Shanghai but it is
yet to expand into Africa.
you have to work 365 days a year, 24 hours a
day, you have to put 2,000% in the industry.”
At 40, Matteo is the youngest amongst his
brothers and his 19 cousins, and the only one
who has not been absorbed into the industry.
“Not all of us are born to be on the frontline,
to be a manager, to sacrifice all his life to the
business. I was born free. I want freedom. I
am like a bird, I like to fly here, there.”
His parents had nurtured hope that Matteo
would eventually return to the fold: “My
mother and father had a lot of dream for my
future but I was not clear. So it was a very
strong decision to go away and take my life
and do what I wanted to do.”
In a characteristic shrug, Matteo shakes o
any regrets and di cult memories from the
past, and says, “Allora, I know that here I can
do something good for myself. Something
good for the Kenyans who are my friends.”
“When you havea big business likemy family whichis worth Sh40 billion and youhave 2,500 people working you
have to be reallyprofessional andserious. You can’t just go there to try and be a goodmanager. If you arein such an industry you have to work365 days a year, 24hours a day, youhave to put 2,000%in the industry.”
As a portrait photographer, he exercises a great deal of
patience to capture the perfect moment.